Food and travel writer Amy Rosen chronicles her unique culinary experiences through prose and photos. All recipes that appear on this blog have been tested by Amy and work beautifully.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

My daily snack

If, like me, you've always thought that microwave popcorn was a one-trick pony, here's a twist on a familiar go-to snack.

I was recently sent a delivery that included a box of Cineplex Big Screen Snax microwavable popcorn, along with a big tin can full of Cranberry Caramel Corn, with the recipe attached.

The thought was nice, but the popcorn was stale. I liked the idea behind the caramel corn born of microwavable popcorn though, and have definite plans to pop up some corn and make the recipe my own. Perhaps I'll sub Smarties for the cranberries, and I'll likely throw some nuts in there too.

But for now, here's their recipe. Let me know how it goes.

CRANBERRY CARAMEL CORN

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries

2 bags Cineplex Big Screen Snax light popcorn, popped

Method:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, stir in corn syrup, sugar and salt; stir constantly until mixture comes to a light boil. Simmer without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir in baking soda and vanilla (careful! it foams up).

Put popped corn in a large bowl, pour hot mixture over corn and mix well. Add chopped cranberries and spread coated corn into large cake pans and bake for 30 minutes, stirring at the 10 and 20-minute intervals.

Remove caramel corn from oven and allow to cool for 10-12 minutes before serving.

About Me

I'm a Toronto-based food and travel writer and a former food editor for Chatelaine and House & Home magazines. A James Beard nominee, and regular contributor to the National Post, enRoute, Food Arts and Food & Wine among other magazines and newspapers, I like to cook but love to eat. A story I wrote is included in the American anthology “Best Food Writing”. My latest book, "Toronto Cooks", will be out in October 2014. Visit my web site at: www.amyrosen.com